Newly Out In Front for White House: An Ol' Pro

Earlier this week, Anita Dunn inserted two words into the conservative electronic echo chamber: Anita Dunn. With her CNN appearance on Sunday attacking Fox News as "a wing of the Republican Party," the White House dispatched its communications director to make one of its most aggressive salvos, in part because she alone in the communications department can withstand the blowback. "She's tough, she knows how to handle herself in the national media, she's not intimidated by it and she enjoys the fray," said David Gergen, a former White House communications director and fellow veteran of the Beltway fray. "It surprised me to see Anita Dunn out there, but if you are going to do it, go with your pro, and she's your pro." Inside the youthful Obama administration's communications shop, Dunn, 51, is valued as a D.C.-certified grownup, a mentor whose battle scars, survival skills and librarian glasses perched atop her blond hair give her gravitas. It's one thing to have championed Obama's election, but she's the only one in the inner circle who's actually worked against him.